Anyone looking to step up against Silva HAS to have really good stand up. Not mediocre stand-up, not "decent" stand-up. REALLY GOOD stand-up. I'm not saying someone will win viao KO, but they have to get past his amazing muay thai just to be able to grapple with him.

Id be pretty pumped to see this fight. Its awesome that Vitor has returned from the dead. One of the first fights I ever seen was Vitor vs Wanderlei at Ultimate Brazil and I pretty well forgot about him until he came back to fight Rich. Someone has to dethrone Silva someday and it would be great for Vitors career to see that go down.

This might be the closest we ever see to Silva/Machida, especially if Belfort keeps working Machida's karate into his stand-up game.

Still, I can't see Belfort managing to win the waiting game with Silva, who's willing to look bad to avoid his opponent's specialty. He'll stay far and away from Belfort's puncher-chance, waiting for Vitor to get aggressive and stupid.

Anyone looking to step up against Silva HAS to have really good stand up. Not mediocre stand-up, not "decent" stand-up. REALLY GOOD stand-up. I'm not saying someone will win viao KO, but they have to get past his amazing muay thai just to be able to grapple with him.

Travis Lutter had him mounted, was exhausted, and had stand-up consisting of diving for however many legs he could get ahold of.

Belfort has to be one of the most inconsistent fighters I have seen. Many times he seems to utterly own his opponent with super fast punches like he did to Wanderlei. Then you have the match against Sakuraba in which his strategy seemed to consist of attempting to knock out a standing oppnonent using strikes from the ground. I think that means that Belfort might be both the best and worst fighter I have ever seen and I don't know what to think of that.

I see Silva running a Muay Thai clinic on Vitor. He will keep his distance and frustrate Vitor with leg kicks and front kicks. Use angles and counter Vitors swinging punches, this gasses Vitor and as that happens Anderson grabs a hold of him in the clinch and the knees start flying.

Henderson got the closest to beating Silva in his UFC career - for a lot of the 1st, he had him down in a dominant position and it Silva couldn't find a way out. If the bell hadn't run, Silva might have been in real trouble.

I agree that it would take a strong wrestler with good ground control to beat Silva as he really isn't all that good at wrestling.

lol, Hendo landed like 3 weak hammer strikes. Silva was never in any trouble.

Originally Posted by Hesperus

Travis Lutter had him mounted, and he was exhausted.

Silva went into that fight like a month after having surgery done on his both knees, which is why he was unable to defend a takedown. He was like 50% fit in that fight but still destroyed Lutter.